Near (This week's Photo Hunt theme)

How far would you go for a good meal, a change of scenery and/or a nice leisure day out? For many Hong Kongers, the answer might be as far as some 60 kilometers (around 37 miles). More precisely, the Big Lychee's sister Special Administrative Region of Macau is a popular destination for day trips and weekend visits -- and I even know of at least one person who thought nothing of heading to the former Portuguese enclave for dinner after a full day's work in Hong Kong!

Considering how different Macau can feel as well as look -- and really is -- from Hong Kong, it can come as a surprise that the two Pearl River Delta territories actually are located fairly near to each other. And the distance between them can feel even smaller as a result of there being so many routes and transportation options to travel between Hong Kong and Macau.

For decades now, the territory which got its name from a goddess (AKA Tin Hau in Hong Kong, A-Ma in Macau and Mazu or Matsu elsewhere) has been Hong Kongers' "go to" place to scratch their gambling itch (but these days, it's not just Hong Kongers who can be found there as Macau has become a bigger casino town than Las Vegas). However, the territory that the Portuguese only handed back to China in 1999's principal attractions for me are its photogenic UNESCO world heritage-listed core and related old sections -- and the food served up in restaurants like Fernando's, A Lorcha and O Manel. (And for those who are wondering: O Manel is where the fellow who went to Macau just for a meal dined!)

And yes, it's true: I too now number among the people who will go to Macau from Hong Kong just for the day -- targeting a morning ferry ride that gets me into Macau in time for a big lunch, followed some sightseeing and strolling about to walk off lunch and build up an appetite for tea (I simply can't resist those yummy Macanese egg tarts!) and then a light dinner (sad but true, I have never been able to have a big dinner after the big lunch and afternoon egg tarts!) before making the return ferry trip back to Hong Kong.

And to Photo Hunters contemplating visiting Hong Kong for pleasure, I do recommend a side trip to (relatively) nearby Macau. So budget at least a week to do this part of the world justice should you decide to holiday here! :)

A hike with plentiful bug sightings as well as scenic views (Photo-essay)

Before anything else: thanks to those of you who wrote encouraging and empathetic/sympathetic responses to my previous post about blog content theft. And in particular because of comments like those of fellow bloggers duriandave and sbk, I've decided to go on with the show.

So without further ado, here's going ahead and putting up another photo-essay to follow that which chronicled the first portion of a Lantau hike a friend and I went on last summer that has come to live in my memory as a hike during which we made a particularly large number of large spider sightings (and also spotted a fair number of other interesting bugs):-

Speaking of spiders, here's an unusual
side view of one of those large arachnids!

I wanted a photo of this nest but didn't want to get
too close to the flying insects whose home it was... :S

One of those bugs that look more like an alien creature
than one who calls Earth (and Hong Kong in particular) home!

Proof that I did spend time admiring scenic vistas
along this hike (rather than just bug hunting!)

With so much budding and blooming though,
small wonder that the bugs were out in force that day!

Looking inland along the summer hike,
one caught views of mist-covered green mountains

In contrast, the view on the other side of the same trail
was that of populated coast and neighboring sea

One of those scenic vistas that makes me sigh and
think that Hong Kong really can be very beautiful

To be continued one more time...!

Blog content theft taken place

A photo taken on a hike earlier today that
I want to share with this blog's visitors --
and for the record, the blog in question's URL
is http://webs-of-significance.blogspot.com

Today, my regular hiking companion and I went on a cool hike that took us from Discovery Bay to Mui Wo on a hot and humid day. Along the way, we encountered a number of interesting critters, got to behold several scenic and panoramic vistas and also visited a Trappist monastery's chapel. In an ideal world, this hike would be the focus of today's blog entry. However, this isn't the case because... well, do please read on:-

A little more than three years ago, I posted a picture theft notice on my blog. This weekend, I discovered theft of content from my blog that's on a larger scale -- whole entire blog entries, text as well as pictures; and indiscriminate too in that it's not only hiking photo-essays but also movie reviews, Photo Hunt posts and at least one whimsical entry about Hello Kitty!

If, as I suspect, the theft is being done automatically, this post will appear on the offending blog as well as mine. I also am guessing that the offending blogger won't mind too much because all he or she is focused on is attracting visitors on to his or her blog which is not ad-free like this one. However, I really hope that whoever visits there will realize that his or her has been stealing other people's contents (including those at Hong Kong (& Macau) Stuff and Gwulo: Old Hong Kong along with CNN Go).

Of course, what I would really, really like is that the offending blogger will have enough of a conscience/sense of shame and/or guilt that will make him or her stop stealing from my blog. And ASAP.

And should you, the offender blogger, be reading this: yes, I know that you credit me on your blog -- and I am not entirely unappreciative of that. But I really do wish you would not be so wholesale in your copying from my blog. Above all, I really wish you would generate your own content that's worth viewing and reading. For only then will you be truly contributing to the online/blogging community as opposed to currently being the parasite that you are, and worse.

Busy (This week's Photo Hunt theme)

For most of my life, I've lived in a port city. I was born in one (George Town, Penang) and have lived in three others in very different parts of the world (Philadelphia, Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar). And, of course, I now reside in Hong Kong.

Although I don't work in the shipping industry, I don't think it's complete coincidence that I look to have been attracted to life in port cities. Rather, my sense is that port cities are places which are more likely to be more multi-cultural and transnational in outlook as well as their business activities than most other places -- and this suits me to a "T" socially and professionally. Furthermore, at their vibrant best, port cities are busy places bustling with life and buzzing in a way that I find very energizing as well as exciting.

For a time, the port of Hong Kong held the title of busiest container port in the world. And although it no longer is the absolute number one in this category, it definitely still is one of the busier container ports in the world. This is something I am able to personally view and verify every time I do such as make a trip to and back from the airport -- since my route there and back passes by the mammoth and seemingly perennially busy Kwai Tsing Container Terminals (parts of which are pictured in the third and fourth photos from the top of this Photo Hunt entry).

Additionally, on ferry trips between the Central Piers and islands like Lamma, Cheung Chau and Peng Chau, one is invariably treated to views of boats and ships galore including ferries plying the Hong Kong-Macau passenger route and bigger vessels heavily laden with containers (like those in the first and second photos from the top of this blog entry) -- and thus given a reminder that even while you are enjoying your leisure time, others continue to be busy working away. (And I don't know about you but this thought often humbles me -- and makes me even more grateful for having more time and opportunity to play than many others!)

Beginning of the Great Revival (movie review)

The flags of The People's Republic of China and the
Hong Kong Special Adminstrative Region fly above
the Court of Final Appeal (Hong Kong)'s building

Beginning of the Great Revival (Mainland China, 2011)
- Han Sanping and Huang Jiangxin, dirs.
- Starring Liu Ye, Chow Yun Fat, Feng Yuanzheng, Zhang Hanyu, Li Qin, Andy Lau, etc.

On this day fourteen years ago, Hong Kong was handed back over to China by the British. Seventy six years before that -- and thus 90 years ago today, the Chinese Communist Party was founded in Shanghai.

To commemorate the latter event, the directors of The Founding of the Republic, got together to make a sort of sequel to that cameo-studded blockbuster propaganda epic. Originally entitled The Founding of the Party, the similarly cameo-filled film that tells an approved version of how the Chinese Communist Party came into being and the roots for the Chinese Communist revolution were laid is now more bombastically called The Beginning of the Great Revival.

Running at close to two hours long, this Mainland Chinese film (which features appearances by a number of Hong Kong thespians and John Woo) covers events taking between the years 1911 and 1921 in such a way that certain key historical developments feel like they were given short shrift in favor of fluffy scenes detailing such as romantic moments between a patriotic general (portrayed by Andy Lau) and his concubine (played by the decades younger Angelababy), and Mao Zedong (essayed by Liu Ye) and his first wife, Yang Kaihui (played by Li Qin), and ones in which Chow Yun Fat is given lots of room to strut about as Yuan Shikai, the general who deposed an emperor and then pronounced himself one.

Although Mao Zedong is the film's major personality, he actually doesn't dominate the picture as much as some people might assume. Also somewhat surprising is the characterization of this (in)famous historical figure as an individual who wasn't especially commanding or impressive in the company of such as Beijing University students and faculty -- though upon further examination, it does make some sense to portray the man from Hunan in such as a way that strengthens claims that he truly was a man of the people (as opposed to, say, someone from an inherited elite and privileged background).

By far the most jaw-dropping part and aspect of Beginning of the Great Revival though is its scenes of the May 4th Movement; not least because the stirring scenes of student demonstrations and protests surely cannot help but recall those that took place in the summer of 1989 in the same country. Upon viewing them, one will understand how stories have been circulating of this propaganda film actually having run into trouble with the censors -- and a super heavy-handed (and consequently clunky) coda being required to be attached to this cinematic offering; because even while the messages being shouted in that section of the film are in line with the nationalism that is being encouraged, the actions of angry youth challenging and confronting establishment figures and braving armed forces can easily be interpreted as showing sympathy for a (still) discouraged cause.

If viewed solely for entertainment, Beginning of the Great Revival will surely be looked upon as a disappointment. If judged on cinematic merit, it would be considered a mixed bag, at best --not least because it appears to be such a hodgepodge of genres: historical drama, action (with a particular scene depicting Zhu De (aka Chu Teh) as a most impressive sharpshooting hero as well as military leader being arguably the one most likely to get one's adrenaline going), suspense thriller and, most improbably, romance.

For my part though, I found this film to make for very intriguing viewing -- including in terms of reading how certain historical personalities and events are (allowed to be) portrayed. And even though it provided me with fewer instances of inadvertent humor than The Founding of the Republic, I was sufficiently captivated throughout the work's 118 minutes -- and, as shocking as this might be to some people, am actually considering re-watching this supposed "sincere tribute" to the Chinese Communist Party once more before its run in Hong Kong cinemas comes to an end!

My rating for the film: 6 as a film (but it'd be higher as material to think about and with!)

Along Stage 10 of the Lantau Trail (Photo-essay)

Early on in my hiking exploration of Hong Kong, I looked upon the Lantau Trail with a degree of awe and fear; and this even though I knew that its 70 kilometers are divided into 12 stages (and thus aren't usually completed over the course of a single hike). This was in no small part due to my knowing that the Lantau Trail includes treks up to near the top of 869-meter-high Sunset Peak and up to the summit of 934-meter-high Lantau Peak, the third and second highest mountains in Hong Kong respectively.

However, after I got more familiar with Hong Kong's country trails, I discovered that certain stages of the Lantau Trail (including Stages 7, 8 and 9 between Shui Hau and Tai O -- which I've completed (see sample photo-essays here, here and here), albeit in reverse) aren't all that daunting. Thus it was, that one day last summer, I set out with a friend to hike Lantau Trail Stage 10 and the few extra kilometers more that would get us from the end point of that stage down to the beach(es) at Cheung Sha:-

Not the kind of sight one would expect to see
near the beginning of an official hiking trail but thus
it was at the Shui Hau end of Lantau Trail Stage 10

Also spotted early on in our hike: the kind of urns that
one associates with human remains in Hong Kong

Fortunately, a few minutes later into the hike,
views like this opened up to occupy our attention

When hiking along a trail, it pays to pause and
turn back every once in a while to check out
the views that can be pretty scenic (as well as
helps you gauge how far you've already gone)

An interesting looking wild flower
whose name I don't know (but wish I did!) ;S

One of the large number of large spiders
my friend and I came across on this hike

Another of the big spiders spotted on this hike
-- and which I actually find pretty eye-catching

And should you wonder: yes, it was a
beautifully bright blue sky day that day :)

To be continued in one more photo-essay at least... :)

Hello again, Kitty-chan!

Kawaii-neh! A particularly cute Hello Kitty (I can't help
but want to make awww sounds when looking at those paws)
on a t-shirt sold to raise funds for Japan disaster relief

Hello Kitty-filled scene at the store where I put in my
Hello Kitty Prays for Japan t-shirt order

Last night, I watched a film at the InDBear Film Festival directed by Singaporean filmmaker Han Yew Khang (who also was responsible for When Hainan Meets Teochew, which I enjoyed viewing at this year's Hong Kong International Film Festival). Love in a Cab is a more conventional romantic comedy -- not least in terms of it having two good-looking leads in Joanne Peh and Julian Hee and its story having a development arc that recalls many other romantic movie, including Turn Left, Turn Right (which director Han openly acknowledged to have been a major influence on him at the post-screening Q&A session last night).

To their credit, Love in a Cab's main actress and actor possess good on-screen chemistry and manage to make the characters they play appear very likeable and endearing. And while it was clear from the screening and at least one question asked during the Q&A that Joanne Peh has her fans, Julian Hee it was who stole the show for me -- and indeed, those who know me will realize how smitten I was by the film's male star and the character he plays in the movie when I state that I found him/them almost as cute and lovable as Hello Kitty and Dear Daniel!

On the subject of Kitty Chan and her tuff-haired beau: I have to admit that I also thoroughly enjoyed their showing up and having not insignificant roles in the work. (And for those who think this is a weird segue/development, here's serving a reminder/bringing to attention that Singapore was the country whose people temporarily went crazy in their bid to get Hello Kitty plushies being offered for a limited time by McDonald's back in 2000 -- and that the film specifically references that event!)

In any case, seeing Hello Kitty (and Dear Daniel) on a big screen last night also got me thinking that it's been a while since the furry feline made an appearance on this blog. (In fact, a scan through my records shows that Kitty Chan has only made one appearance thus far this year on this blog!) So I figured that I'd help remedy this situation by reporting my glee at finally becoming the owner last week of a Hello Kitty Prays for Japan t-shirt -- close to two months after I put in an order and paid for it back in April.

Why the delay? Because these t-shirts were so popular that the organizers of this particular Japan disaster relief effort ran out of their supply of these pieces of clothing with Hello Kitty's visage on them being sold for a good cause -- and way sooner than anticipated!

Thus it was that one evening in April, I found myself wandering about the Hello Kitty-fied section of a new department store in a daze and state of disbelief... that there simultaneously was so many Hello Kitty items on sale in that store but the one thing I really, really wanted and had gone out of my way to the store to get was something I would have to wait around two months to get my hands on!

Fortunately, when I communicated my agony (via phone text messages and calls) to more than one friend that evening, there were some who were sympathetic as well as others who just found the situation laughter inducing. But that's Hong Kong for you -- in that the land that shares its initials with the cute cat really does have a significant number of adult fans of Kitty Chan. And should you doubt my assertion, just take a look at the second photo at the top of this blog entry... and consider that the Hello Kitty T-shirts that became out of stock so fast were all adult-sized ones! :)